By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and RICHARD SANDOMIR, The New York Times
The push for the blood testing of athletes was front and center in two sports Thursday, with two championship boxers agreeing to undergo such testing and Major League Baseball reiterating that it was moving forward to do the same in its minor leagues.
In boxing, Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley announced that they would allow the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which oversees the testing of Olympic athletes, to test their blood and urine leading up to their bout May 1. It is the first time Usada will conduct tests in boxing.
Baseball made its statement about testing in response to criticism from the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. In a statement posted on WADA’s Web site Thursday, its president, John Fahey, said that if baseball’s owners and its players union were serious about testing for human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs, they would adopt blood testing without further delay.
Blood testing, which is conducted regularly only at the Olympic level, has become a subject of debate since a British rugby player was suspended last month for a positive blood test for human growth hormone. The test marked the first time that an athlete had been identified as testing positive for the substance and seemed to confirm that the test — which had been used on a limited basis over the past six years — could indeed catch cheats.
The decision by Mayweather and Mosley to undergo Olympic-style testing was of significance because it came two months after Manny Pacquiao objected to a blood-testing regimen that Mayweather had demanded as part of a showdown bout between them. Mosley has previously said he received designer steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative years ago but was not told that they were prohibited.
Meanwhile, in the statement addressed to Major League Baseball and its union, Fahey, Wada’s president, said: “We continue to read statements from the M.L.B. commissioner and M.L.B.P.A. representatives questioning the appropriateness of implementing blood-testing in the league. This is nonsense.”
He added, “If they are serious about getting rid of cheaters, the M.L.B. and the M.L.B.P.A. should listen to those players who supported blood collection in the past few weeks and start implementing a testing program.”
In response, Major League Baseball said that Fahey was off the mark and that it wanted to quickly institute a blood test for H.G.H. in the minor leagues, where union consent is not needed.
“Major League Baseball representatives have publicly stated numerous times, including at the Partnership for Clean Competition conference hosted at our offices two weeks ago, that we are currently exploring the feasibility of conducting blood testing for H.G.H. in the minor leagues as soon as possible,” said Rob Manfred, baseball’s top drug-testing official.
Commissioner Bud Selig has told his deputies that he wants H.G.H. testing begun in the minor leagues as soon as possible, according to officials in baseball, who did not want to be identified discussing internal deliberations of the commissioner’s office. Selig is waiting on a report from his antidoping experts before proceeding, they said.
Manfred, in his statement, said the commissioner’s office had begun a dialogue with the union on blood testing.
In turn, Michael Weiner, the executive director of the union, issued a statement that confirmed that there had been discussions on the matter.
“We look forward to further discussions as we jointly explore how we might strengthen our program as it relates to H.G.H.,” Weiner said.
Source: nytimes.com
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